Community Forums

jayman_1975 · 06-20-2016, 09:30 PM

So I have heard that you should cover your panel when making connections to the batteries. I'm wondering what could happen if you don't don't shade. Yesterday I changed out a ground cable and forgot to shade the panel. I suppose I disconnected and connected the wire a couple times but I didn't notice any large sparking. Now today I see all I can get in good sunlight is about 1.5a showing on my controller while bulk charging. I'm worried I may have damaged something. Can something "blow" on the panel and cause it to reduce its charging capabilities even in great sunlight?

powercat_ras · 06-20-2016, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayman_1975

So I have heard that you should cover your panel when making connections to the batteries. I'm wondering what could happen if you don't don't shade. Yesterday I changed out a ground cable and forgot to shade the panel. I suppose I disconnected and connected the wire a couple times but I didn't notice any large sparking. Now today I see all I can get in good sunlight is about 1.5a showing on my controller while bulk charging. I'm worried I may have damaged something. Can something "blow" on the panel and cause it to reduce its charging capabilities even in great sunlight?

Several in-expensive PWM Solar Charge Controllers I have owned caution against having Solar Panels connected to the Controller without any batteries connected to the Controller. If you had solar powers connected and un-covered and disconnected the connection to the controller you may have "blown" something inside the controller.

drdarrin · 06-20-2016, 09:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayman_1975

So I have heard that you should cover your panel when making connections to the batteries. I'm wondering what could happen if you don't don't shade. Yesterday I changed out a ground cable and forgot to shade the panel. I suppose I disconnected and connected the wire a couple times but I didn't notice any large sparking. Now today I see all I can get in good sunlight is about 1.5a showing on my controller while bulk charging. I'm worried I may have damaged something. Can something "blow" on the panel and cause it to reduce its charging capabilities even in great sunlight?

I'm thinking you may have proven that you can. 1.5A is what, about 25% of your panels Imp rating?

Covering them is a good idea, I think. So is disconnecting them from your charge controller before you service them. It could also be damaged. Time to start troubleshooting.

vsheetz · 06-20-2016, 10:47 PM

I recommend an inline circuit breaker both before and after a solar controller. Makes it easy to isolate for servicing.

**CountryFit** · 06-20-2016, 11:04 PM

i have never covered the panels since day one but i have multiple protections: breaker on both in and out of the controller; fuse on each panel before joining the combiner; and the battery to controller connection is always the first to power and the last to disconnect.

trouble shoot by isolating segments. hopefully the controller is ok.

jayman_1975 · 06-22-2016, 05:55 PM

Ok so everything seems to be working now. I'm not sure why but the value for amperage on the controller is not showing accurately when checked with a voltmeter. It shows roughly 75% of the total amperage as per the volt meter. Not sure why this is but at least I know my batteries are getting proper charge. Actually now that I think about it, if I account for voltage loss then the charging amps showing on the controller are probably pretty close to what is actually arriving at the battery.